想像以下的畫面：你的手指飛快地在鍵盤上連續敲著按鍵，形成具有特定意義的字句，並在銀幕上將這些符號組合鍵入某個狀態欄，同時也透過機械語言轉譯，在電腦主機裡輸入一串由0與1組合的隨機電子活動，並在主機板與其外圍迴路引發一道不同路徑的電子脈衝，透過電路板與i/o埠、轉接介面、纜線或無線網卡與訊號封包發射至無形的空氣中；隨後這些訊號陸續傳送經過某些洲或大洋之後，又在特定的寬頻位階裡接收、轉譯、還原為不同的電子脈衝，經由不同路徑傳達至特定的網路伺服器，最後恢復成一句相同的字母或拼音組合，以銀幕前的使用者幾乎無法察覺的時間差，化為無數使用相同服務的電腦銀幕上的相同字句，即時地更新。網路連線的訊息交換繼續被轉貼，引用，刪減，修改或傳遞，這樣的過程在地球上每天都會發生數億萬次。只是這次的情況有點不同：這個推特（twitter）介面上顯現的電子訊號組合並不是你或我，而是一大群人工養殖的蒼蠅，無意識或無秩序地在小型鍵盤上啟動。

然而，這看起來並不難理解的場景其實包含了某個基本的假設，要使得這種不同電腦之前人們具有可以溝通的，共同在網路上進行相同的活動的處境，必須先假設人們是分別處在同種時間意識所框架的不同時區之中。某種不證自明的異地同在感，事實上，這種意識並不是一開始就存在於人們腦海，而是隨著工業革命之後的西方社會發展逐漸演進形成，我們會說，這是線性的進步歷史觀點所形成的時間意識。

4. The end of Merono

Gean Moreno constructs an inorganic scenery of future (the Grey Goo scenario), or an allegorical reading. What he considers in “‘Notes on the Inorganic, Part I: Accelerations” is beyond the accurate time of the end; the symbolic system of capitalism (replibots). From the lifeless scenario that is supposed to come, he points out, the unrestricted license of mankind to devastate had been rationalized reversely.

莫倫諾在〈無機的筆記〉裡針對資本主義的線性歷史，虛構了一個完全無機的末日場景或者批判的寓言。在文章裡他關切的不是末日將何時來臨，如他所說的資本主義金權象徵（自我複製的奈米級機器人）加速耗盡之後之後的荒涼的、無生命的地景；而是一種末日註定會來臨的觀念，讓人類從某個曖昧的未來反向決定眼前消耗的持續加速，甚至合理化資本主義的浪費。若這種無人的操作虛構了現時的場景，不管是基於危言聳聽或未雨綢繆的，藝術或許是它最好的形式。

3. The end of “A better Summer Day”

TENG Chao-ming draws from the representation of a period in Taiwan’s history in his work, regarding the inevitable destination as a starting point, to make his own paradoxical conclusion of reasoning. While the scene is based on fiction (A Brighter Summer Day), how can the process be possible as reasoning backward? Is it an idealistic rebellion? On the contrary to this historical narrative, those who are inspired to be the treasure seekers in the digital era navigate the “invisible waterways”. (Crush on EMU) Which is said by the curator, it’s not about getting rid of, but trying to become oneself.

鄧兆旻的〈一個紀念碑，紀念釐清的（不）可行性〉取材自國族歷史的寓言，將毀滅的終點視為創作起點，藉此強化他對歷史的反證或歸謬。但這基於過去的虛構場景，可否挪用為時態的逆轉操作，或者只是一相情願的反抗命定？與此種歷史歸謬相反的論證，則是在〈心動EMU〉導覽裡讀到的另一個場景：嚮往著大航海時代的這些數位海賊，沿著看不見的航線蒐集寶物。策展人告訴我們，它不是關於跳脫而是如何成為自己。

2: …of the time that remains

…those artist make the scenes and shape the consciousness depending on the operational time. While numerous scenarios have been created over the past decades, it’s the very time been manipulated on screens. (MV or movies) Everything that happened before can happen again in the theater. Such as the remnant of the memories to the scenes left by the performer, on the stages of “Emptied Memories” and “Off the Map”, yet the remaining digital space is saturated now with the feelings of “being in the time”. Whatever cannot be captured or spotted comes to you again in this no man’s land.

你會看到藝術家虛構場景是基於時間意識上的操作，而在電影和MV裡則顯示一種受到操控的時間，在過去超過半世紀裡累積無數的場景。劇場是驗證這些場景的最佳空間，因為所有過去的事情都可以在劇場裡一再發生，又像是快要消失的記憶，在劇場裡面與荒蕪的場景面對面，那些在舞台上的輿圖和記憶，不再是消失的場景而是剩下來的數位空間，某個掏空回憶之後重新成為載體的同在時空。它與無人的網路都與此刻的你並存，但你也都同樣看不見或摸不著。

1. The end of the emptied memories

The dancer’s gesture lit in the dark; is it a calling of the remembrance? From where he/she stands in the space surrounded by emptiness, the dancer regards the remembrance distantly. How can one leave the past he came from? Perhaps our destination is already written in the past we had been through, yet not happen. (“Everything has a beginning, that has an end”, the Oracle said in “the Matrix”)

舞者在黑暗裡被照亮的手勢，是在召喚著記憶嗎？他所置身的空無，又是如何成為與他所召喚的記憶遙遙相對的存在？也許我們的結局早已包含在我們的起點之中（如同先知在駭客任務裡的預言：Everything has a beginning, that has an end）。

0. The scene of the end

Jean-Francois Lyotard composed a scenario foreseeing an apocalyptic end time that was based on scientific research. Now we turn our attention to Walter Benjamin’s angle of history, who looks toward the past, but cannot stop his ceaseless flight backward toward the future owing to the violent storm of progress. The angle of history is a metaphor showing us how to resist the linear storm of time. If there is truly an end of our world and we seek for a messianic redemption, Benjamin tells us messianic is not the end of time, but the time of the end. The writer of “Messianic inversion” will be discussing ‘how to take time to the end’ and which might be an urgent question of our time.

與其相信後現代主義哲學家李歐塔（Jean-Francois Lyotard）為我們譜寫的太陽毀滅劇本，是一個有科學根據的天啟版本，這裡不如看看班雅明如何用一個名為進步的風暴將我們吹進未來的背對姿態，去為一個必然的剩餘時間寫下註腳與對抗的姿態。因為彌賽亞並非時間的終止，而是終止的時間（messianic is not the end of time, but the time of the end）；如果祂存在的話，〈彌賽亞逆轉〉的作者告訴我們，如何到達終點才是我們所該關心的話題⋯

於是我們繼續等待終點。